Ananya Mishra, a third year PhD candidate working on comparative indigenous literatures, has collaborated with Danika Parikh and Akshyeta Suryanarayan, graduate students in the Department of Archaeology, to initiate ‘Untold Histories Museum Tours’ at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.
These tours look into the difficult histories of how objects came to be in the museum. They explore collecting, curating, and representation and confront the problematic pasts of anthropologists and ethnographers who defined these fields and are celebrated today.
The tours were sold out when they ran as part of the Festival of Ideas in October 2018. By popular demand, Ananya, Danika and Akshyeta are running four more tours in Lent Term. Their work will also feature at the Change Makers Action Group at Cambridge Museums. The tours received a special mention in an article in The New York Times on new conceptions of Museum Tours: “Others have followed her [Alice Procter’s] lead, including at Cambridge, where three doctoral researchers are running “Untold Histories” tours of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology”.
More information on the research and aims of ‘Untold Histories’ can be found on this blog published by Cambridge Museums:
https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/blog/2019/01/09/untold-histories-museum-tours-stories-of-collecting-through-colonialism-and-conflict/?fbclid=IwAR27aroQaPteH6m8H0A69YyONE2J42cy5Ffx1ISmCjNVlVNmq5i2PaMMSrw
Remaining tickets for this term can be bought at:
https://www.cambridgelivetrust.co.uk/tickets/events/untold-histories-museum-tours
It is hoped that these tours contribute to discussions and efforts in decolonising museums in Cambridge and the UK.
